Local billboards will soon be more energy efficient

Saturday

Apr 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2011 at 11:25 PM

Kathrine SchmidtStaff Writer

HOUMA — Instead of just advertising hot deals or products, billboards in the Terrebonne and Lafourche area will soon be actually generating their own energy.Lamar Advertising is installing solar panels and energy-efficient LED lighting on the signs in Baton Rouge, the market of its headquarters, as well as more than 70 in the region that includes Houma and Thibodaux.“During the day, they will pump power into the grid,” Raad Cawthon, a spokesman for the company on the project, said of the panels. “At night, when they turn the lights on, they will pull power out of the grid. They produce more power than they actually use.”Lamar first tried out the project near its original home base of Pensacola, Fla,. in 2008, and found the boards were able to generate more than twice the power they used to light up the signs at night.In Louisiana, Houma is among the first of the markets in a $10 million effort to equip more than 1,000 billboards across the state with the capacity to generate solar or wind energy by 2012. The work is partially paid for by a $2.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, but Lamar is spending its own money on the rest. The company says it is committed to using renewable energy and cutting back on carbon emissions, and aims to inspire customers and local residents to do the same, its executives said. It has already put $15 million into such changes, including printing its boards on recyclable materials and using ink that releases fewer chemical fumes.“While this will eventually be good for Lamar's bottom line, one of the main reasons we are undertaking this project is to show Louisiana residents that this exact technology can be utilized to convert their homes to renewable energy,” said Robert B. Switzer, vice president of operations for the company. “That's why we are intentionally avoiding unproven technologies or methods. The large-scale deployment of hundreds of small systems, like we are undertaking with the conversion of each structure, closely resembles the kind of renewable energy systems available to most homeowners.”As for staying put during hurricane season, the panels are designed to withstand 140-mph winds, the same resistance of the billboards themselves, Cawthon said.That means a busy time over the next few weeks for Kenny Savoie, local operations manager for Lamar. Presently, his crews are working to install energy-efficient LED lighting on billboards from Galliano to Morgan City. The solar panels will come next, with installation starting in mid-May. About 40 of these are in the Houma area, he said.“I think it's good,” he said. The LED lights will show up nicely at night, as well as save money and represent a new way of generating power, he said.

Staff Writer Kathrine Schmidt can be reached at 857-2204 or Kathrine.schmidt@houmatoday.com.